Europe's hottest startups 2016: Barcelona

Global tech companies like Amazon, Lenovo and Cisco have been announcing new openings in Barcelona

TomasSereda/iStock

Population 1.6 million

Size 101.4km2

Global cities index ranking 26

In the past year, there has been an influx of international investment and global big-hitters to Barcelona. Amazon, Lenovo and Ocado announced new openings, and Cisco is using the city as a test bed for its internet of things platform. As a result, early-stage funding of up to €750,000 is relatively straightforward.

Miquel Marti, CEO of Barcelona Tech City, is calling for more local investment firms to provide up to €1m, and for more "entrepreneurial adapted tax and regulation" frameworks.

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"For verticals such as fintech or the social economy, regulations are slower than the technology," says Wayra director Julian Vinue.

Wallapop

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Carrer de Casp, 2a Planta 162, 08013

Since making our list last year, the used-item trading app has attracted another 25m users and now facilitates 20,000 transactions a day, with more than 46m products for sale. Using geolocation to match local buyers and sellers, it set out to change the preconception that second-hand items are sub-par. Now it wants to normalise the purchase of these items "as something common and not a blip for occasional moments", says co-founder and CEO Agustin Gomez.

HolaLuz

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Plaça Pau Vila, 1, Esc a 4a Planta, 08039

When HolaLuz co-founder Ferran Nogué's mother was sent a €700 bill for her month's electricity with no explanation, the idea for transparent, green-energy seller HolaLuz was born. Almost six years later, the startup has a monthly turnover of €8 million, 60,000 customers and received a €4 million investment from Axon Parners in January 2016.

Typeform

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Passeig de la Pau 10, Bis 1-2

Two years after its launch (and making our 2014 startups list), Typerform's free online-survey creation tool reached more than 16 million unique monthly visitors in April 2016. In 2015, the startup launched Android and iOS apps and move into new offices to house a workforce growing at a rate of 25 per cent a quarter.

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CornerJob

This recruitment app is only a year old, but it already publishes 20,000 jobs a month. "Thousands of vacancies remain uncovered," says co-founder Miguel Vicente. "Things can be done much better if the product experience is focused in this segment and the high-rotation employment field."

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Social Point

Social Point's reason for being is simple: "Make funny and free social games available to everybody through new technologies." Its games, which include Dragon Land and Social Wars, have been downloaded 50 million times, and it currently has two titles in the 100 top-grossing iPhone games chart in the US.

Glovo

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Glovo delivers food and products from local suppliers in under an hour by assigning tasks to independent couriers. "In general, there is no reason to buy anything online and have to wait 24 to 72 hours to receive it," says co-founder Sacha Michaud. The app launched in 2015 and had 100,000 signups by May 2016, with operations in Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Milan.

With €2 million in seed funds secured in 2015, Glovo is planning on launching in more European cities but faces tough regulations. "Some [countries] have not yet adapted to the future of flexible working hours and the new digital economy," Michaud says.

Kantox

Foreign-exchange platform Kantox made our 2015 list when transactions reached $1 billion; it broke the $3 billion barrier in April 2016. It completed an $11 million funding round from Partech Ventures, IDinvest Partners and Cabiedes & Partners in May 2015, and released new software this year which automates FX transactions and payments.

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Deliberry

Deliberry brings groceries to customers in under an hour. It relies on a fleet of "mamashoppers", who are tasked with picking out quality produce at the best price. Co-founded by Gemma Soriqué (below) in January 2015, it's part of the Antai Venture Builder (which helped Wallapop and Glovo) and has delivered 250,000 products.

letgo

This free app lets you buy and sell locally, while generating "Hollywood-style" ads designed to be shared on social media. Launched in May 2015, letgo raised $100m four months later from Naspers, and the average daily number of items posted increased 500 per cent between January 2016 and May 2016.

Heygo

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Esadecreapolis, Office 2b08, Ave. Torreblanca 57, 08172

Within three months of launching in January 2015, the peer-to-peer task-listing app had 220,000 users. "No matter what people do for a living, they can be an entrepreneur and start to make money," says co-founder and CEO Nicolas Espinosa. The startup is raising €800,000 for a launch in the UK and France, and is aiming for one million users by December.

Click here to explore the other startups on WIRED's 100 hottest European startups list

This article was first published in the October 2016 issue of WIRED magazine